Big bucks, brands give campus fests in Bangalore corporate touch

The mood in colleges across Bangalore is carnivalesque. After all, the season of campus festivals has just set in. The college fiestas are only getting bigger and bigger with corporates more than willing to spend big bucks to be part of the celebration of youth.

From brand names like PepsiCo India, Kingfisher Premium, ForceIndia, Flykingfisher, Airtel and Uninor to real estate companies like Prestige Group, corporate companies, cutting across sectors, are strutting their brand values in the college carnivals.

With the coming of the big brands, the budget of the campus carnivals too has shot up and touched even Rs30 lakh, in some of the colleges.

“We spent about Rs22 lakh this year for our college festival, Autumn Muse. Several companies like PepsiCo India and Uninor were among our sponsors. Big airline and hospitality companies too pitched in and took care of the travelling and accommodation of our celebrity guests. Otherwise, our budget would have run into Rs35 lakh easily,” Jino Joy, president, St John’s Medical College Students’ Association, told DNA.

The premier medical college in the city celebrated the 20th edition of Autumn Muse, the annual music and sports event organised by the St John’s College Students’ Association. The event which was organised after a gap of three years, cost double that of its last edition. “The budget of the 19th edition was about Rs9 lakh,” said Jino.

“About 10,000 students from various colleges of the country took part in the four-day long event. So we needed a huge amount of money to host the event. We are glad that several companies helped us in our endeavour,” said Jino.

Admitting that money had started playing a big role in the college fiestas, Prof Clement D’Souza, student welfare officer of St Joseph’s College, said that every college wants to have the best festival.

“Of course, lakhs and lakhs of rupees are spent in these college festivals. However, our college makes it a point not to send students to hunt for sponsors. If sponsors come on their own, we welcome them. The college too funds the festival,” said D’Souza.
St Joseph’s College will host its annual festival, Visages, in September.

A teacher of another popular college of the city said  the entry of corporates and their money in college festivals was a dangerous trend.

“I feel all colleges are running after sponsors to make their festivals bigger. Students are supposed to study and not hunt for sponsors. The authorities should discourage such trends,” warned the teacher.

Authorities of two-month-old Jain College, Jayanagar which
concluded the celebration of its first campus  festival, Udbhava, last week said that their festival concentrated mostly on creative aspect of students, instead of spending huge amounts of money.

“We had no sponsors this year. The entire fiesta was funded by the college. The budget was meagre, about Rs3 lakh. We concentrated on quality and not quantity,” said BT Venkatesh, principal, Jain College, Jayanagar.